Which horse was twice beaten a short-head in the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

The most valuable steeplechase of its kind in Britain, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is, for many, the highlight not just of the Cheltenham Festival, but of the whole National Hunt season. The race is run over three miles and two-and-a-half miles, and 22 notoriously stiff fences, on the stamina-laden New Course at Prestbury Park and provides a thorough examination of the prowess of any staying steeplechaser.

For the connections to many such horses, to even be in the reckoning for race of the calibre of the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a privilege and actually winning it remains, as pioneering jockey Rachael Blackmore out it, an “impossible dream”. Spare a thought, then, for those horses that are beaten by narrow margins in the ‘Blue Riband’ event because, as connections of On His Own (beaten a short-head in 2014) and Santini (beaten a neck in 2019) will probably acknowledge, it must be an agonising experience.

Of course, neither On His Own nor Santini ever won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but the horse that was beaten a short-head not once, but twice, did manage to add his name to the roll of honour at the fourth time of asking. The horse in question was The Fellow, trained in France by Francois Doumen and ridden on all four Gold Cup attempts by Adam Kondrat. In 1991, The Fellow was sent off at a relatively unfancied 28/1, but nonetheless came within a whisker of beating Garrison Savannah. The following season, he returned to the Cheltenham Festival off a win in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, but was again beat a short-head, by Cool Ground.